26 March - Handicap International is devoting unprecedented resources to meeting healthcare needs in Haiti. Our team of 130 people, including 40 expatriate staff, provides assistance in 14 hospitals, nine “Disability focal points” and as part of mobile teams.

The expatriate staff on Handicap International's health teams in Haiti come from many different countries, underlining the unprecedented scale of our operations. Since the earthquake struck the country on 12 January, our team members have travelled from Canada, Belgium, Lebanon, the US, El Salvador, South Africa, Switzerland and Togo to share their expertise in the case-management of amputees and injured persons.

They are assisted by Haitian staff, including nurses, rehabilitation staff and community workers. As part of an intensive training course followed by daily practical experience, they learn how to case-manage people with injuries (people with fractures, crushed limbs, burns and brain injuries), amputees and paralysed persons. They are also taught how to lift patients and use mobility aids.

Local assistance
Two months after the disaster struck, these teams still provide regular assistance in 12 hospitals in Port-au-Prince and two additional hospitals, where they supply technical assistance on request. The association has also deployed nine “Disability focal points”. Housed in clinic tents, often close to hospitals, these facilities provide patients with follow-up care once they have left hospital. On a more general level, they supply free aid to the injured, elderly and people with disabilities. Nine mobile six-member care teams use the focal points as a base for their visits. They provide medical assistance within local communities to injured people unable or unwilling to go to hospital, and those who have left hospital with injuries requiring follow-up care.
They promote access to care and ensure the follow-up of the most vulnerable people.

Fitting of orthopaedic devices
More than 1,700 people have already benefited from rehabilitation care and sessions. Some 300 amputees have been assessed for an orthopaedic-fitting and fifty have been fitted or are currently being fitted with an orthopaedic device. Orthopaedic fitting began in early March following the setting up of a temporary prosthesis preparation workshop in central Port-au-Prince. Handicap International's teams will reach out to patients wherever they are living, sometimes more than an hour from the fitting centre. The workshop provides a space for the production and testing of prostheses and for the provision of follow-up care (rehabilitation and exercises).
Handicap International will produce between 300 and 400 emergency prostheses and one hundred orthoses (splints, corsets, etc.) in the first six months.